Egg-container separating device



Feb. 10, 1953 PAGE EGG-CONTAINER SEPARATING DEVICE Original Filed Dec. 27, 1946 m M ad 3? NN m 7 6 n 2 W I aw wwl M" Q g m .u l w .i J A kw @a Q\ 8 attorneys Patented F eb. 10, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EGG-CONTAINER SEPARATING DEVICE Clarence Page, Detroit, Mich., assignor to Page and Cox, Detroit, Mich, a corporation of Michigan 3 Claims.

This invention relates to egg-handling machinery and, in particular, to machines for removing eggs from their containers.

One object of this invention is to provide a machine for automatically separating eggs from the containers or so-called fillers in which they are pocketed and for removing the so-called flats or bottoms of the egg-containers which close the bottoms of the fillers.

Another object is to provide a machine for removing the bottoms of egg containers in response to the sliding of the egg-containers along the machine, spaced fingers being provided which are thereby automatically inserted between the so-called fillers or upper portions of the eggcontainers and the so-called flats or bottoms thereof.

This application is a division of my co-pending application Serial No. 718,755 filed December 27, 1946. for Egg-Grading Machine, which issued as Patent No. 2,481,440 on September 6, 1949.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a machine for removing eggs from egg-containers, according to a preferred form of the invention, as connected to an egg-orienting machine;

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the machines shown in Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a vertical section taken along the line 3-3 in Figure 1.

In general, the egg container removing machine of the present invention, generally designated II, is. one unit of a multiple unit egggrading machine which includes two other units, namely an egg-orienting or separating conveyor unit, generally designated I2, and an egg-sorting unit, not shown herein but disclosed and claimed in my co-pending application referred to above. The egg-separating conveyor unit I2, after the removal of the egg-container, separates the eggs into-rows, causes each egg to come to rest with its long axis approximately horizontal, and deposits the eggs upon egg rests. The eggs are then automatically picked up from these egg restsbya conveying device in the egg-sorting a platform I6 having a guide rail I I on one' side thereof. Bolted to the side plates I5 (Figure 1) are angle brackets I8, these in turn being Mounted between the angle brackets I8 and thelegs I9 and secured by the same bolts is an angle member 20 which passes transversely acrossthe receiving unit H and passes through cut-away portions 2! in the side plates I5 thereof. Mounted between the side plates I5 are the front and rear walls 22 and 23 respectively of a receptacle 24 having a bottom wall 25..

Rising from the angle member 20 (Figure 1) and secured thereto as at 26 is an upright support 2 upon which are mounted a series of spaced parallel elongated stripping fingers 28, the pointed ends of which are directed toward the platform I6. The fingers 28 are for the purpose of stripping the bottoms or flats 29 from the fillers or pocketed portions 30 of eggcontainers 3| containing eggs 32.. This is accomplished, as more fully described in connection with they operation of the machine, by placing the container 3| containing the eggs 32 upon the platform I6 (Figures 1 and 2) and pushing it to the left, causing the pointed fingers 28 to penetrate the container 3| at the junction of the flat 29 with the filler 33, splitting the two apart. The

fiat 29 drops into the receptacle. 24 while the eggs 32 are slid over the tops of the fingers 28, which are spaced apart an amount slightly less than the small diameter of an undersized egg. When the filler 30, with its bottom or fiat 29 thus removed, has been pushed to the left-hand end of the stripping fingers 28, it passes onward to the egg-separating unit l2. At this point, the

filler 30 is lifted by the operator, the eggs 32 remaining upon the egg-separating portion I2 while the filler 30 is discarded.

The egg-separating conveyor portion I 2, shown partly at the left-hand ends of Figures 1 and 2, includes a frame formed by a pair of vertical channel members 33 mounted uponthe upper I ends of the legs I9 and with their channel portions facing one another. The channel members 33 are interconnected at intervals by upper and lower angle members 34 and 35 respectively (Figures 1 and .2) which in; turn support upper bearing bushings 39 (Figures 1 and 2) in which are journaled cross-shafts 41. Within the channels of the channel members 33 the shafts 4| near their opposite ends carry sprockets 43, these sprockets being encircled by endless chains 45.

Mounted between the endless chains 45 at intervals therealong are rods 46 carrying capstan-shaped rollers or spools 41. The spools 4T are freely rotatable on the rods 43 andslidable axially therealong (Figure 2) and are provided with annular grooves :28 near'the ends thereof engageable with guide rails 36 and 31.

The channel members 33 at their le't-hand ends are provided with e g-rests (not shown) which serve to receive the eggs oriented by the egg-separating unit I2, from-which the eggs are carried onward to the egg-weighing portion of the machine, as described in my above-identified co-pending application. The conveyor chains 45 at their left-hand .ends encircle sprockets on a driving shaft (not shown) which is driven by any suitable power unit, such as the motor disclosed in the aforesaid co-pendingapplication.

In the operation of the invention, the eggs in their containers are placed upon the platform 16 of the egg-feeding unit to (Figures 1 and 2) and slidtoward the egg-separating conveyor unit l2. Meanwhile, the upper surfaces of the pointed fingers 28 have been waxed so as to reduce friction to a minimum. As the egg containers 3! are slid forward (Figure l), the ends of the pointed fingers 28 wedge their way between the fillers .26 and their flats or bottoms 29, forcing the latter downward and detaching them so that they, fall into the receptacle 24 from which they may be removed at intervals The bottomless fillers 36' with their eggs 32 arenow moved still further forward until the first row of e gs therein is engaged'by the rollers 41 on. the conveyor rods 46 of'the egg-separating conveyor unit I2, which has been set'in motion by the operation of a motor. The rollers or spools 41 as they move forward along the upper part'ofthe conveyor portion l2'are caused to diverge by the diverging guide rails 36'and at the same time they pull the bottomless fillers 38 forward; until all of the eggs are deposited'upon the rollers or spools 47, whereupon the filler 30 may be lifted off and discarded: In most instances it is found that the motion of the spools or rollers 41 caused the filler 30, to ride upward outfofengagement with the eggs 32' without the necessity oflifting it.

The eggs thus freed from their fillers 3B, are

moved along by the conveyor rollers or spools 41 and at the same time are shifted from vertical to horizontal positions. The eggs at the end of the run of the conveyor 12 are deposited by the spools or rollers 41 upon the egg rests previously mentioned (not shown) with their long axes horizontal and extending transversely of the machine. This action separates the eggs into spaced rows and places them in positions where they' are most conveniently carried to and deposited uponthe weighing devices of the egg-sorting unit (not shown).

Thus, by the invention; the eggs are quickly and easily separated from their containers without danger of breakage and without expensive hand operations. The eggs depositd upon the egg rests, after being oriented are then automatically weighed and separated into weight ranges by the mechanism disclosed and claimed in the aboveidentified co-pending application.

What I claim is:

1,. A separating device for removing the bottom of containers containing eggs, comprising a frame having, a supporting platform for the egg containers, a plurality of relatively narrow laterally spaced pointed members disposed adjacent said platform and directed longitudinally thereto at the junction between the bottom and the lower edges of the vertical partitions in the upper portion of each container, said members being responsive to the sliding of said containers along said platform for penetrating said containers adjacent the bottoms thereof and separating said bottoms from said upper portions, and a receptacle beneath said members and platform for receiving the detached bottoms of said egg, containers.

2. A separating device for removingthe bottoms of containers containing e gs, comprising a frame having a supporting platform for the egg containers, a plurality of relatively narrow laterally spaced pointed members disposed adjacent said platform and directed longitudinally thereto at the junction between the bottom and the lower edges of the verticalpartitions in the upper portion of each container, said? members.

frame having a supporting platform'for the, egg,

containers, a plurality, of relatively, narrow laterally-spaced pointed. members disposed adjacent said platform and directed longitudinally thereto atthe junction between thebotto-mand the lower, edges, of the vertical partitions inthe upper portion of each container, said members-- being responsive to the slidingjof saidcontainers for penetrating said containers adjacent the bot:

toms thereof 1 and separating, saidv bottoms from said upper portionshand a support beneath, said members and platform for receivingthe detached bottoms of said eg containers.

CLARENCE PAGE.

REFERENCES CITED The following, references are of record inthe.

file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 612,375 Bennett Oct. 111.1898 1,279,563 Lowell Sept. 24,1918 1,866,809 Kassar July-12,1932 1,938,947 Whitmore Dec. 12," 1933 2,074,383 Funk Mar. 23, 1937 

